More Win7 coolness

One of the other cool new logs, as it relates to servicing, is the new sessions.xml log. Located in the \Windows\servicing\sessions directory, its a log of all of the different transactions that happen on the machine from a servicing perspective. A small snippet of a log is seen below:

^{- <Session version="1.0" id="30018265_436341867" client="WindowsUpdateAgent" options="816" currentPhase="1" lastSuccessfulState="Complete" pendingFollower="false" retry="true" Queued="2009/07/22/10:31:30" Started="2009/07/22/10:31:32" Complete="2009/07/22/10:31:45" status="0x0">}

^{- <Tasks>}

^{- <Phase seq="1">}

  ^{<package id="Package_for_KB972636~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0" name="KB972636" targetState="Installed" options="4" />}

  ^</Phase>

  ^</Tasks>

^{- <Actions>}

^{- <Phase seq="1" rebootRequired="false" Resolved="2009/07/22/10:31:38" Staged="2009/07/22/10:31:39" Installed="2009/07/22/10:31:44">}

  ^{<Resolve package="Package_1_for_KB972636~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0" update="972636-1_neutral_LDR" />}

  ^{<Stage package="Package_1_for_KB972636~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0" update="972636-1_neutral_LDR" />}

  ^{<Install package="Package_1_for_KB972636~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0" update="972636-1_neutral_LDR" />}

  ^</Phase>

  ^</Actions>

  ^</Session>

  ^</Sessions>

 

Because this is log is in XML, you can collapse all but the transactions that you are interested in seeing. The one thing I like about this log is that it tells you exactly what is happening with each package in a particular fix or update.

For example, in the sample above you can see that KB972636 was installed on this machine recently. It was installed by the WindowsUpdate Agent and it did not require a reboot. This is all really good information to know when trying to troubleshoot an issue with servicing in Win7. Using this, you might be able to tell if a particular package didn’t get staged properly. Or, if a reboot was required and you’re in a reboot loop issue, then you know that you can use the new DISM /revertpendingactions flag and roll yourself back.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  My pleasure.... Have a good week/weekend. --Joseph

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Cool, thanks for the response. I see what you're getting at now, and I actually agree with a lot of your points.  Agreeing with them and getting them implemented in product is a little bit of a different matter though <G>.  Suffice it to say I will make sure the product teams see your feedback and that your voice is heard.   --Joseph

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Oh, and sorry for the wall of text replies! Guess I just have a lot to explain, and I just like technical writing ;)

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Thanks for the idea Drew.  I like that.  I'll see what I can about getting something like that on the radar.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2011
  During startup or shutdown, when a servicing operation is in progress, the system displays "Installing update X of Y". This always leaves me wondering - "what are these updates?". It would be nice if this sessions.xml data could be piped to the screen in some appropriate format, so the user might have some understanding of what updates were being installed, return codes and reboot required status, etc. There is a Group Policy to enable verbose startup, shutdown, logon and logoff messages: support.microsoft.com/.../325376 My request is there be an equivalent policy for servicing messages. Example name: VerboseServicingMessages Having this extra log file is great, if you know it exists, but the servicing summaries in this xml file could be at least as useful if they were displayed during or at end of a servicing operation. At the very least, having something to read on the screen might decrease the subjective time taken to install.

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2011
  Thanks Joseph. IMO, verbose messaging (of any type), should be enabled by default during any Setup pass, and on any boot cycle that an Administrator is auto-logged-on. Except for the Home SKUs perhaps.

• Anonymous
  September 28, 2011
  The comment has been removed